AN NHS audiologist who wrote between shifts, a police intelligence analyst and an investment manager are just three of the authors picked from thousands to lead the 2012 TV Book Club shortlist.

Ten books carefully chosen out of the thousands published each year are soon to become the titles everyone is talking about on TV’s best known literary discussion forum, when the series returns to More4 at 7.20pm on Sunday 29 January, with repeat episodes on Channel Four.

Funded by Specsavers, the ten-part series sees a celebrity panel that includes Caroline Quentin, Meera Syal, Dave Spikey, Laila Rouass and Rory McGrath, critiquing a new title each week. For the first time ever, viewers are invited to interact with the show, reading along with them and sending in their own reviews.

The series launches with international bestseller Before I Go To Sleep by S. J. Watson, followed by The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt, The Somnambulist by Essie Fox, Into The Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes, Rules of Civility by Amor Towles, Girl Reading by Katie Ward, The Report by Jessica Francis Kane, The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson, Half of The Human Race by Anthony Quinn and You Deserve Nothing by Alexander Maksik.

S. J. Watson won a Crime Writers Association Dagger and Galaxy National Book Award for his debut novel, Before I Go To Sleep, which he wrote between shifts as an audiologist for the NHS. Patrick DeWitt’s The Sisters Brothers was shortlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize and Kevin Wilson’s The Family Fang was a New York Times Bestseller and included in the Top Ten Fiction Books of 2011 in Time Magazine. Jessica Francis Kane’s debut novel The Report was a finalist in the Indie Booksellers Choice Awards.

Also on the shortlist and making her literary debut with The Somnambulist is illustrator turned author Essie Fox, who writes the popular blog The Virtual Victorian. Police intelligence analyst Elizabeth Haynes, investment manager Amor Towles, former women’s refuge worker Katie Ward, and Iowa Writer’s Workshop graduate Alexander Maksik are all also shortlisted for their debut novels.

The tenth author is critic Anthony Quinn, who was a Man Booker Prize judge in 2006 and is currently the film critic for The Independent newspaper and wine correspondent for Esquire magazine.

The titles have been carefully chosen by a panel headed by Managing Director of Cactus TV Amanda Ross. Amanda revolutionised the idea of featuring books on television with the creation of Richard and Judy’s Book Club and now The Specsavers TV Book Club, Summer Read and the televising of the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards and the Galaxy British Book Awards.

She has an eye for a great read and David Nicholls, Kate Mosse, Cecilia Aherne, Emma Donoghue and Linwood Barclay are a handful of the literary stalwarts that Amanda has spotted since founding the Book Club’s original incarnation in 2004.

Such is her influence in the publishing industry that she was hailed ‘the most powerful person in publishing’ by The Observer Review and one of the ‘top 50 most influential Londoners’ by the Evening Standard. Amanda won a prestigious British Book Trade Award for inspiring wider reading in 2005 and The Bookseller Award for expanding the market in 2006 and 2007, plus an Outstanding Achievement Award in 2009.

Of the 2012 short list, Amanda says: ‘All the titles on this year’s list will scream “don’t put me down” at the reader. Although all my choices are, as always very different in style and content, their common factor is that they are all really great reads and the viewers will be torn when the time comes for them to vote for their favourite to win the accolade Best Read at the end of the series.’

Specsavers marketing director, Richard Holmes says: ‘Many people will find that the first time they notice a problem with their eyesight is when they’re reading. We are delighted to be supporting the Specsavers TV Book Club for the fifth season and will be encouraging more people, not only to get their eyesight checked but to pick up a book and enjoy a good read.’

This year, The TV Book Club, will ask viewers to send in their reviews of each week’s Best Read, and will play a selection of these reviews on the show for discussion by the presenters. Viewers can send their thoughts on the books to the show by video message, email, or letter. This new interactive element to the show reflects the nature of book review discussions happening online and in reading groups right now across the UK.  Written reviews and video reviews can be sent to bookreviews@cactustv.co.uk, and should include a contact telephone number.

The ten short listed books for the next series of the TV Book Club are listed below:

Press Contact: Taylor Herring PR

 ★ Ian Hislop celebrates 25 years at the helm

★ 50th book launch to mark historic milestone

★ V&A exhibition to celebrate landmark anniversary

LONDON, 8th September 2011: Private Eye is Britain’s first, most successful and indeed only fortnightly satirical magazine. Founded in 1961, it has somehow managed to survive for half a century during which it has consistently entertained, informed and irritated its readers.

Over five turbulent decades it has developed its unique mix of jokes and journalism, comedy and campaigning, gags and gossip, laughter and libel, to cover the public life of the nation.

From political plots to royal revelations, from City scandal to media manipulation, from legal lunacy to municipal madness. (That’s enough alliteration – Ed)

This year, Britain’s number one best-selling news and current affairs magazine marks its 50^th anniversary on 25^th October with a series of exciting events throughout the Autumn.

Ian Hislop comments: “I do not want anyone to think that this is all just a huge celebration of ourselves. Our 50^th year is a chance to look back and take a dispassionate view of how marvellous we are.”

Released on Tuesday 20^th September to kick off the anniversary year celebrations, Private Eye: The First 50 Years, an A-Z, is a lavishly illustrated, definitive history of the magazine, charting its rise from 300 copies of the first edition on 25^th October 1961, to a fortnightly readership of 700,000, steered at the helm by Editor of 25 years, Ian Hislop.

Written by Private Eye journalist Adam Macqueen, who has been with the magazine since 1997, Private Eye: The First 50 Years, an A-Z, is an unsurpassed, fascinating history of Private Eye over the past 50 years.

Forming an in-depth, witty and occasionally critical appraisal, Macqueen has created the long-awaited volume containing everything you ever wanted to know about the  nation’s favourite satirical organ. At last the origin of Ugandan discussions will be disclosed, along with the story behind that Andrew Neil photo, and the identity of Britain’s Biggest Pseud. Plus the inside story of the magazine’s many high-profile legal battles, scoops and staff bust-ups, told by those who were there.

In addition to a wealth of new material, the book features exclusive interviews with current editor, Ian Hislop, his predecessor Richard Ingrams and co-founder, Christopher Booker, plus a host of other key figures past and present.

The book also contains exclusive reminiscences and revelations about former contributors including Peter Cook, Auberon Waugh and Willie Rushton, in addition to rare archive material, unseen photographs and an abundance of cartoons from the likes of Nick Newman, Tony Husband and Michael Heath – many never before published.

Adam Macqueen comments: “I’ve been digging up stories for the Eye for fourteen years, but a lot of the stuff I found out about the mag surprised even me. When I discovered it surprised the editor too, I figured I must be doing something right.”

 With the phone hacking scandal, the superinjunction fiascos and the European financial meltdown it has been a quiet year for news. Luckily Private Eye was there to fill the gap.

Available from Wednesday 12^th October, the 2011 Private Eye Annual presents the very best of Private Eye’s unique blend of wit and humour,  jam-packed with pages of parody, the funniest spoofs, gags, cartoons, photo bubbles and topical humour.

Consistently found in the best seller chart and selling in excess of 78,000 copies last year alone, it is a must for every Christmas stocking.

Opening on Tuesday 18^th October and running for three months until 8^th January 2012, Private Eye at the V&A is on display in the V&A’s Studio Gallery in South Kensington, London.

Private Eye at the V&A is a free exhibition and will explore the wealth of artistic talent that the magazine has fostered by showcasing the original artwork for some of the finest and funniest Private Eye cartoons. Over its 50-year history, the Eye has published and promoted the work of more than 90 artists, many of whom started their careers at the magazine, including Gerald Scarfe, Ralph Steadman, Willie Rushton, Barry Fantoni, Nick Newman, Michael Heath, John Kent and Ed McLachlan. The illustrations will be shown in thematic sections on politics, royalty and social observation. They are richly varied in style and tone and take the form of single cartoons with captions, long-running strips and caricatures.

Ian Hislop has chosen 50 of the best trademark front covers, one from every year the magazine has been published. The front covers will be arranged in a timeline, offering a graphic satirical history of the news over five decades.

The exhibition will evoke the atmosphere of the magazine’s Soho office, with a recreation of the editor’s paper-strewn desk. There will also be seldom-seen ephemera from the magazine’s past campaigns and court cases, as well as a life-sized cutout of Tony Blair, a stuffed dog, a flying Robert Maxwell and a giant inflatable banana.

Notes to Editors:

Private Eye is the UK’s number one, best-selling news and current affairs magazine, edited by Ian Hislop.

Richard Ingrams served as editor from the 10^th issue until 1986, and was then succeeded by Ian Hislop in 1986. It offers a unique blend of humour, social and political observations and investigative journalism. Published fortnightly, the magazine is read by over 700,000 readers.

Ian Hislop has edited Private Eye since 1986, and was absolutely thrilled to be voted the 97^th most powerful person in the media by the Guardian this year.

Commentating on “a stellar year for the man who celebrates 25 years in the editor’s chair in October – half the life of the magazine” The Guardian continued “The Private Eye editor has challenged privacy injunctions, led the way on important stories – and has also managed to boost sales.

Hislop’s work has put privacy injunctions firmly in the spotlight. But less glamorous campaigns have also succeeded at the magazine, where sales of more than 200,000 a fortnight are the best for nearly 20 years.

Even in recent months, the In the Back column has led the way on care homes, Southern Cross and the failings of the Care Quality Commission, and Rotten Boroughs broke an important story on South Tyneside council’s legal battle with Twitter. The magazine revealed problems at Doctor Who – and who would want to be a sleazy hack with Street of Shame on the lookout?

Hislop’s personal appearances on behalf of the magazine, whether on Radio 4′s Today programme or before Commons committees, have been impressive, which is perhaps not surprising given his lengthy TV career.

He continues to be a driving force of BBC1′s Have I Got News for You. And successes such as Ian Hislop’s Age of the Do-Gooders this year have also seen him identified as one of BBC2′s representative faces by controller Janice Hadlow.”

Ian has made countless television and radio appearances, as panellist, essayist and presenter. Credits range from Newsnight Review, Question Time and University Challenge (‘The Professionals’), to Radio 4 series on the history of tax, the Victorians and church architecture.

As a writer, Ian progressed from Spitting Image to write sketches for Harry Enfield and television plays for Maureen Lipman and Dawn French. Most recently he co-wrote the family sitcom, My Dad’s the Prime Minister.

Ian Hislop was honoured to receive the British Society of Magazine Editor’s highest award, The Editor’s Editor.

Adam Macqueen

Adam Macqueen joined the Eye on work experience in 1997, and has been there ever since, apart from two years when he ran away to become deputy editor of the Big Issue. He writes mostly for the Street of Shame and Media News pages, as well as compiling the Number Crunching Column.

He has also freelanced for a great many other newspapers and magazines, and had a weekly slot as co-presenter on the Sandi Toksvig show on LBC as well as regularly appearing on Sky News.

His previous book, The King of Sunlight: How William Lever Cleaned Up The World, was a chosen title on both Simon Mayo’s book club on Five Live and A Good Read on Radio 4.

www.private-eye.co.uk or via twitter – @PrivateEyeNews

Ten books carefully chosen from the thousands of new books published are about to be become the titles everyone will be talking about as the 2011 TV Book Club short list is announced today.

The diverse assembly of writers, some new and some established authors, earning a place on TV’s best known literary discussion forum includes two from the current Booker Prize shortlist, a leading TV producer, and even a former post woman. The titles will be reviewed on a weekly basis when the series returns to More4 on Sunday 16^th January at 7.30pm, with repeats on Channel 4 the following day.

Funded by Specsavers, the ten-part series sees a celebrity panel that includes Jo Brand, Dave Spikey and Laila Rouass joined for this new series by Ade Edmondson and Meera Syal. They will critique a new title each week encouraging viewers to read along with them.

The series launches with the Booker nominated Room by Emma Donoghue, with the rest of the titles (in transmission order) as follows: The Long Song by Andrea Levy, Junior Officers’ Reading Club by Patrick Hennessey, Tiger Hills by Sarita Mandanna, The News Where You Are by Catherine O’Flynn, Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, Bleed For Me by Michael Robotham, Even The Dogs by Jon McGregor, My Last Duchess by Daisy Goodwin and Spies of the Balkans by Alan Furst.

Emma Donoghue and Andrea Levy, were both finalists for the 2010 Man Booker Prize. In addition, Andrea scooped the Orange Prize For Fiction back in 2004.

Also on the short list is TV producer turned fiction author Daisy Goodwin, who currently heads up production company Silver River. Her list of TV credits includes How Clean Is Your House, Grand Designs and Jamie’s Kitchen. The Last Duchess marks her literary debut as the TV Book Club continues a tradition of championing emerging writing talents.

Meanwhile, the varying backgrounds of the authors include a former Grenadier Guard officer, Patrick Hennessey, Science Writer Rebecca Skloot, and ex post woman and mystery shopper Catherine O’Flynn, who was declared Newcomer of the Year at the Galaxy British Book Awards in 2008.

As ever, the titles have been carefully chosen by a panel headed up by Amanda Ross, creator and producer of the original and recently revived TV Book Club, and Managing Director of Cactus TV. Kate Mosse, Kate Riverton, Cecilia Aherne and Linwood Barclay are a handful of the literary stalwarts that Ross has spotted since founding the Book Club’s original incarnation in 2004. Such is her influence in the publishing industry that Amanda was hailed ‘The Most Powerful Person In Publishing’ by The Observer Review and one of the ‘Top 50 Most Influential Londoners’ by Evening Standard.

Of the 2011 short list, Amanda remarks “There’s a wealth of creativity and originality in the short listed titles and every book has that extra special quality that made it impossible to put down.  I want to get as many people as possible reading, these are some of our best and most diverse picks yet, so should encourage more people to pick up a book. Our authors backgrounds range from an American science writer through to a fellow TV producer, and I’m proud to be championing some great new talent as well as incredibly talented established authors”

Specsavers marketing director, Richard Holmes says: ‘This is the second year of our partnership funding the TV Book Club and we’re delighted to continue the success of the previous seasons and sponsorship of the Crime Thriller Awards. This year we’ll be focusing on literacy and the intrinsic link between reading and eyecare. There’s no doubt that this great selection of titles will encourage even more people to read along with the show.’

Tony Blair, Chris Mullin, Stephen Fry and Sir Alan Sugar are among those vying for the top slot in the autobiographies category while Jamie Oliver is up against Nigel Slater and Nigella Lawson for the food and drink book of the year.

Many of the books shortlisted – including titles by Bill Bryson, Jilly Cooper, Peter James, Philippa Gregory and Hilary Mantel – have spent weeks in this year’s best-seller charts.  

The Awards showcase the best of British publishing, celebrating books with wide popular appeal, critical acclaim and commercial success.  The Awards are designed to recognise the very best in popular fiction and non-fiction from British writers published during 2010. There are eight categories including biographies, food and drink, children’s books, UK author of the year, international author of the year and new writer of the year.

Category winners will be revealed at a star-studded awards ceremony, produced by Cactus TV, on November 10^th.    The public will subsequently be invited to vote online for the Galaxy Book of the Year and the final result will be announced on December 13^th. The awards ceremony will be televised on More4 on November 13^th .

Amanda Ross, managing director of Cactus TV, one of the most influential personalities in British publishing, commented:

“It’s great to see such a wide range of quality books on the shortlist. They seem to represent what the public are reading now and in the lead up to Christmas. These nominations have ensured the Galaxy National Book Awards will be rewarding the cream of top British publishing.”

THE SHORTLIST: AN OVERVIEW

Tony Blair’s A Journey is pitched head to head against Chris Mullin’s Decline and Fall: Diaries 2005-2010 in the biographies category as recent political events take centre stage.  Two other major contemporary figures also dominate the list: Stephen Fry (The Fry Chronicles) and Sir Alan Sugar (What You See is What You Get), while insights into other worlds are provided by the critically acclaimed Wait For Me by the Duchess of Devonshire and Justine Picardie’s biography Coco Chanel, The Legend And The Life.

Insights into two worlds of a very different nature – mathematics and the domestic home – are provided by Alex’s Adventures in Numberland by Alex Bellos and Bill Bryson’s At Home, which feature in the non-fiction shortlist. Other non-fiction titles show the enduring popularity of twentieth century history – and in particular the second world war – with Ben MacIntyre’s Operation Mincemeat competing against D-Day (Antony Beevor) and Andrew Marr’s The Making Of Modern Britain. Must You Go? Antonia Fraser’s memoirs of life with Harold Pinter – part literary memoir, part love story – is the sixth book in this category.

TV chefs make a strong showing with Nigel competing against Nigella and Jamie. All three have titles in the new food and drink category: Nigel Slater’s Tender II  is up against Nigella Lawson’ Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home and Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals.  Also in the running are three less familiar names: Niki Segnit for The Flavour Thesaurus, Rose Prince for Kitchenella  and Yotam Ottolenghi for Plenty.

The bitter struggles of The War of the Roses are the backdrop to Philippa Gregory’s The Red Queen, which is competing in the popular fiction category against novels in more modern settings such as Jilly Cooper’s horsy saga Jump! and David Nicholls’ moving love story, One Day.

Crime fiction is well represented on the popular fiction shortlist by Worth Dying For (Lee Child), Dead Like You  (Peter James) while debut writer Simon Lelic’s Rupture is shortlisted in the new writers category.

Other first books competing for this coveted category award include Mr Chartwell, Rebecca Hunt‘s inventive and original take on Winston Churchill’s description of depression as a black dog;  Patrick Barkham’s search for Britain’s 59 species of butterfly in The Butterfly Isles and Katherine Webb’s multi-generational drama The Legacy. Edmund de Waal (The Hare with Amber Eyes) and Natasha Solomons (Mr Rosenblum’s List) complete the new writers shortlist.

The shortlisted authors for the UK author of the year category tackle a diverse range of themes from technology and mourning (Tom McCarthy’s C)  to memory and motherhood (Maggie O’Farrell’s The Hand That First Held Mine). Settings too, range far and wide and take readers from rural France in Rose Tremain’s psychological thriller Trespass to Japan in the eighteenth century in David Mitchell’s love story The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. Completing the category are Hilary Mantel for her Booker winner Wolf Hall, which explores individual psychology in the context of the politics of Tudor England, and Kate Atkinson, who is shortlisted for her crime novel Started Early, Took My Dog.

While the Galaxy awards are designed primarily to celebrate British writers, one category has been reserved for those international authors who have made a major impact on the British reading public.  No such list would be complete without Stieg Larsson for his third thriller in the Millennium trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.  Larsson’s book is up against Freedom by Jonathan Franzen, another literary big hitter who has recently been dominating the news as well as the review pages.   From Franzen’s Minnesota, the shortlist moves firstly to mid-twentieth century New York, the setting for Brooklyn, Colm Toibin’s tale of Irish immigrants, and secondly to the Deep South of the 1960s for Kathryn Stockett’s debut novel The Help. The final titles in this category are Emma Donoghue’s deeply disturbing book Room, triggered by the Josef Fritzl case in Austria and lastly the phenomenal international success, The Slap, by Australian author Christos Tsiolkas.

Sainsbury’s Popular Fiction Book of the Year
Dead Like You  Peter James (Macmillan)
The Ice Cream Girls  Dorothy Koomson (Sphere)
Jump!  Jilly Cooper (Bantam Press)
One Day  David Nicholls (Hodder & Stoughton)
The Red Queen  Philippa Gregory (Simon & Schuster)
Worth Dying For  Lee Child (Bantam Press)

Non-Fiction Book of the Year
Alex’s Adventures in Numberland  Alex Bellos (Bloomsbury)
At Home  Bill Bryson (Doubleday)
D-Day  Antony Beevor (Viking)
The Making Of Modern Britain  Andrew Marr (Pan)
Must You Go?  Antonia Fraser (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
Operation Mincemeat  Ben MacIntyre (Bloomsbury)

National Book Tokens New Writer of the Year
Patrick Barkham The Butterfly Isles  (Granta Books)
Edmund de Waal The Hare with Amber Eyes  (Chatto & Windus)
Katherine Webb The Legacy  (Orion)
Rebecca Hunt Mr Chartwell  (Fig Tree)
Natasha Solomons Mr Rosenblum’s List  (Sceptre)
Simon Lelic Rupture (Picador)

WH Smith Children’s Book of the Year
The Great Hamster Massacre  Katie Davies, illus Hannah Shaw (Simon and Schuster)
Monsters of Men  Patrick Ness (Walker Books)
Mr Stink  David Walliams (HarperCollins Childrens Books)
Shadow  Michael Morpurgo (HarperCollins Childrens Books)
TimeRiders Alex Scarrow (Puffin)
Zog  Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler (Alison Green Books)

Tesco Food & Drink Book of the Year
The Flavour Thesaurus  Niki Segnit (Bloomsbury)
Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals  Jamie Oliver (Michael Joseph)
Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home  Nigella Lawson (Chatto & Windus)
Kitchenella  Rose Prince (Fourth Estate)
Plenty  Yotam Ottolenghi (Ebury Press)
Tender II  Nigel Slater (Fourth Estate)

Tesco Biography of the Year
Coco Chanel, The Legend And The Life  Justine Picardie (Harper NonFiction)
Decline and Fall: Diaries 2005-2010  Chris Mullin (Profile Books)
The Fry Chronicles  Stephen Fry (Michael Joseph)
A Journey  Tony Blair (Hutchinson)
Wait For Me  Duchess of Devonshire (John Murray)
What You See Is What You Get  Alan Sugar (Macmillan)

International Author of the Year
Colm Toibin Brooklyn  (Penguin)
Jonathan Franzen Freedom  (Fourth Estate)
Stieg Larsson The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest  (Quercus/MacLehose Press)
Kathryn Stockett The Help  (Fig Tree)Emma Donoghue Room (Picador)
Christos Tsiolkas The Slap  (Tuskar Rock Press)

Waterstone’s UK Author of the Year
Tom McCarthy C (Jonathan Cape)
Maggie O’Farrell The Hand That First Held Mine  (Headline Review)
Kate Atkinson Started Early, Took My Dog  (Doubleday)
David Mitchell The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet  (Sceptre) Rose Tremain Trespass (Chatto & Windus)
Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall  (Fourth Estate)

GALAXY NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS

The Galaxy National Book Awards are the Oscars of the British publishing industry, celebrating the best of Britain’s fiction and non-fiction books published in the year up to 31^st October 2010.  They are the only awards dedicated to British authors, with one special category set aside for International Author of the Year.  The awards have evolved from the Galaxy British Book Awards and dozens of the country’s most popular, accessible writers and authors have been recognised over the years by these annual awards. The awards ceremony on Wednesday 10^th November will be televised on More4 on Saturday 13^th November,  followed by a 5-part TV series broadcast on Sundays throughout November and December. The Galaxy National Book Awards are run and project managed by Agile Marketing (an independent marketing agency) on behalf of the publishing and bookselling industries. The shortlists and category winners are decided by the votes of the industry Academy of the National Book Awards, a body that represents over 600 individuals from the world of books in the UK. In addition, the Galaxy Book of the Year reflect the tastes of the book-buying public as they are based on consumer votes. 

CACTUS TV

Cactus TV is a member of the ALL3MEDIA group and run by husband and wife team Simon and Amanda Ross. Productions include Saturday Kitchen for BBC1, The TV Book Club for Channel4, Hairy Bikers Food Tour of Britain for BBC2, Rachel Allen, Galaxy British Book Awards and eight years of the Richard & Judy show live from Cactus studios.

GALAXY

GALAXY® is proud to be the title sponsor of the long-awaited GALAXY® National Book Awards. Through this sponsorship, and a 1 million book giveaway, we are continuing to unite chocolate and reading – the perfect partners to ensure women everywhere melt into a good book with GALAXY® for the perfect me-time moment. Over the last five years GALAXY® has worked with many key players in the book industry, to create book clubs, offer book reviews and give free book synopses to readers. We sponsored the Richard & Judy Book Club for four years, and felt that in sponsoring the National Book Awards we could continue to make a difference to book and chocolate lovers. GALAXY® aims to encourage more chocolate lovers to appreciate the joy of reading, and more book lovers enjoying chocolate to enhance their indulgent me-time moment.

For more information on the GALAXY® Reading campaign, and to see much loved TV presenter Claudia Winkleman sharing her love of books, visit www.facebook.com/galaxy.

Press Contact Taylor Herring PR

Celebrating the books, the blockbusters and the TV dramas that send shivers down the spine and put supreme sleuthing skills to the test, the coveted awards are presented in a glamorous gala ceremony at London’s Grosvenor House.

Competition is fierce across the categories, especially in this year’s TV Dagger, which sees Britain’s best loved detectives vying for pole position – sleuth of the moment Sherlock, which returned to BBC One to critical acclaim this year and propelled newcomer Benedict Cumberbatch to mass popularity, goes up against Ashes to Ashes (Kudos), nominated for a third year running, Luther (BBC) and Wallander (Left Bank Pictures).

Meanwhile, it’s a blockbuster battle in the Film Dagger section, as Sherlock Holmes makes his second appearance of the night – this time the Warner movie adaptation faces rival Inception, Stieg Larsson’s bestseller The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and Sony’s District Nine. In this unique event that combines all genres of crime and thriller fiction, big name authors also find themselves on the hot lists for one of the milestone events in the literary calendar.

In a star studded affair, high profile faces from international stage and screen vie for best actor, actress and supporting role ‘Daggers’ – amongst the top name nominees are Kenneth Branagh, Glenn Close, Philip Glenister, Laurence Fox and former Dagger winner Hermione Norris. Meanwhile Benedict Cumberbatch, TV’s man of the moment, is hoping to seize The Best Actor TV Dagger, against stiff competition from Branagh, Glenister and Idris Elba.

International Criminal fiction is also celebrated as the International TV Dagger lands Wallander a second nomination, against The Good Wife (CBS) and Damages (Sony Pictures).

The Awards are the culmination of the Specsavers Crime Thriller Season. ITV3 is running a 6 week season of brand new crime and thriller documentaries focusing on twelve of TV’s greatest fictional detectives and showcasing shortlisted books for the Crime Writer’s Association Dagger. Each featured detective is a nominee for ‘The People’s Detective’ Dagger for whom the public get to vote at www.itv.com/drama/crimethrillerawards/  — the winner will be announced at the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards.  

Drawing extensively on archive from ITV’s impressive crime thriller back catalogue, each profile show features two of the nation’s best loved TV detectives, examining their quirks and foibles and re-visiting their most challenging cases.  In addition to revealing behind-the-scenes stories and anecdotes, there are newly filmed interviews with the stars of the shows and the creators of the TV’s biggest screen sleuths alongside their famous fans.

The 2010 Awards – the third annual event produced by Cactus TV for ITV3, is sponsored by Specsavers and made in conjunction with the Crime Writers’ Association – will take place on the evening of Friday October 8^th in the Ballroom of the Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, London. The Awards will be screened on ITV3 the following week.

The full shortlist in the film and TV categories is: 

THE FILM DAGGER
District 9 (Sony Pictures)
Inception (Warner Bros)
Sherlock Holmes (Warner Bros)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Momentum Pictures)

The TV DAGGER
Ashes to Ashes (Series 3) (Kudos)
Luther (BBC)
Sherlock (BBC)
Wallander (Series 2) (Left Bank Pictures)

THE INTERNATIONAL TV DAGGER
Damages (Season 3) (Sony Pictures)
The Good Wife (Season 1) (CBS)
Wallander (Series 2) (Yellow Bird Films)

THE BEST ACTRESS DAGGER
Glenn Close (Damages)
Hermione Norris (Spooks)
Keeley Hawes (Ashes to Ashes & Identity)
Maxine Peake (Criminal Justice)
Sue Johnston (Waking the Dead)

THE BEST ACTOR DAGGER
Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock)
Idris Elba (Luther)
Kenneth Branagh (Wallander)
Philip Glenister (Ashes to Ashes)

THE BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR DAGGER
Laurence Fox (Lewis)
Matthew Macfadyen (Criminal Justice)
Rupert Graves (Sherlock)
Tom Hiddleston (Wallander)

THE BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS DAGGER
Dervla Kirwan (The Silence)
Gina McKee (The Silence)
Saskia Reeves (Luther)
Sophie Okonedo (Criminal Justice)

Funded by Specsavers, the eight-part series screens weekly on More4 on Sunday evenings from 27 June, with repeats on Channel 4 the following day. Each week, anchor presenters, Jo Brand and Dave Spikey, will join two other celebrity presenters and a celebrity guest to critique each title, with viewers invited to read along.

Launching with Kathryn Stockett’s The Help on Sunday 27 June the rest of the selected titles in transmission order are: The Man Who Disappeared by Clare Morrall, The Legacy by Katherine Webb, The Bed I Made by Lucie Whitehouse, Stone’s Fall by Iain Pears, Ellis Island by Kate Kerrigan, The Devil’s Acre by Matthew Plamplin and Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf.

The shortlisted authors are a combination of successful writers from a variety of backgrounds and literary success, including former music school teacher Clare Morrall, who was shortlisted for a Booker Prize with her debut novel Astonishing Squashes of Colour. Clare joins Iain Pears, who originally worked as a reporter for the BBC, Channel 4 and Reuters, before focusing on art history. The list also includes international authors, Heather Gudenkauf from Iowa and Kathryn Stockett from Mississippi.

Since the initial broadcast of The TV Book Club in 2004 as part of the Richard and Judy show, many authors have gone on to achieve commercial and critical acclaim. Kate Mosse, Kate Riverton and Linwood Barclay have seen their selected titles adapted for the big screen. One of the Book Club’s first ever novels – Cecilia Aherne’s literary hit, PS, I Love You – became a film in 2007 starring Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler, while Rebecca Miller’s The Private Lives of Pippa Lee was released as a motion picture in America just last year.

Amanda Ross is the creator and producer of the original and recently revived TV Book Club and is also Managing Director of Cactus TV, which produces the series. More importantly, Amanda leads the panel which selects each title from the list put forward by publishing houses. This role has led to Amanda being named the Most Powerful Person in Publishing in The Observer Review, while the Evening Standard named her one of the Top 50 Most Influential Londoners.

Of the Summer Read’s shortlist, Amanda Ross says: ‘I’m just as passionate about our lists as I was back when we started the Book Club seven years ago, probably more so, and with each series that goes by the selection process becomes all the more challenging. The Summer Read list is all about pleasure; a book can make or break your holiday. I’m confident that we are delivering one of our most gripping shortlists to date, guaranteed to keep readers entertained whatever the weather.’

Specsavers marketing director, Richard Holmes says: ‘Sponsorship of the TV Book Club revival in January was an exciting time for Specsavers, highlighting both our passion for reading but also the importance of good eyesight. We are delighted with Amanda’s choice of titles for the next series and have no doubt everyone will be glued to their screens to hear Jo Brand and Dave Spikey’s reviews and hopefully, will also be outside in the sun enjoying a good read.’

Ten books that are set to become must-read favourites are today announced as the first titles in a new series of The TV Book Club, due to return to TV screens in January.

Funded by Specsavers, the ten part series screens weekly on More4, with repeats on Channel 4. The new panel of presenters critiquing each week’s chosen title consists of TV personalities Jo Brand, Gok Wan, Laila Rouass, Dave Spikey and Nathaniel Parker.

Launching with Sarah Waters’ The Little Stranger on Sunday 17th January 2010, the rest of the selected titles in transmission order are: Blacklands by Belinda Bauer, Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant, Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby, Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese, The Rapture by Liz Jensen, Brixton Beach by Roma Tearne, The Way Home by George Pelecanos, Wedlock by Wendy Moore, and The Silver Linings Play Book by Matthew Quick.

The authors, a combination of established writers and emerging talents, include Nick Hornby, who features with his latest work Juliet, Naked. Nick is no stranger to literary success, having won global recognition for his award-winning books Fever Pitch and About a Boy, which along with High Fidelity have all been made into high-grossing movies. Meanwhile, The Way Home author, George Pelecanos is a TV and film producer and has written and produced extensively for the cult hit crime-fighting drama, The Wire. Sarah Waters, who has written The Little Stranger, has previously enjoyed success with her books Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith, winning the South Bank Award for Literature and being named as Author of the Year at the 2003 British Book Awards.

Each week the revived TV Book Club will also feature a major celebrity interview and an author who has been previously selected discussing how the programme impacted on their success. Previous writers that have benefited from featuring on the TV Book Club include Kate Mosse, Victoria Hislop and Cecilia Aherne.

Testament to its undeniable success, previous Book Club entries (from Richard & Judy’s daytime show) have been made into high-grossing movies. Alice Sebold’s best-seller The Lovely Bones is about to go on nationwide cinematic release on 29 January 2010 starring Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz and Susan Sarandon and directed by the Oscar® winning director of The Lord of The Rings trilogy, Peter Jackson, while Cecilia Aherne’s PS I Love You, was released as a motion picture in 2007 starring Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler.

Amanda Ross is the creator and producer of the original and revived TV Book Club and as Managing Director of Cactus TV, which produces the series, has been instrumental in the overwhelming impact it had in its previous guise on Richard & Judy’s daytime show.

Amanda heads up a team of four who trawl through almost 800submissions from Britain’s publishing houses, before whittling them down to an enthralling and entertaining top ten reads. Amanda’s influence in publishing has been recognised both by The Observer Review, where she was named the Most Powerful Person in Publishing 2006 and the Evening Standard, which has named her one of the top 50 Most Influential Londoners.

On this year’s shortlist, Amanda Ross says: “With the new series backed by Specsavers and the public faith in our Book Clubs, we are only too aware of the overwhelming responsibility when choosing the shortlist. But I think this year our recommendations will encourage more people than ever to read along.”

Specsavers marketing director, Richard Holmes says: “Sponsorship of the Crime Thriller Awards in October opened a new chapter for us and so it seemed only natural to continue our relationship with Cactus TV and fund The TV Book Club. The partnership highlights our passion for reading and there’s no doubt that this ten part series with its new format will be even more successful. I believe this great selection of titles will appeal to a wide variety of audiences”.

For more information please contact Taylor Herring PR on 0208 206 5151.

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About Specsavers: Specsavers was founded by Doug and Dame Mary Perkins in 1984 and is now the largest privately owned opticians in the world. The couple still run the company, along with their three children. Their eldest son John is joint managing director. Specsavers has more than 1,340 stores throughout the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Spain and Australia. The group plans to continue its successful international expansion by opening stores in New Zealand. Annual turnover for the Specsavers Group is forecast to reach a record £1.4 billion in 2009. Specsavers was voted Britain’s most trusted brand of opticians for the eighth year running by Reader’s Digest in 2009.

About Cactus TV – Cactus TV is a member of the ALL3MEDIA group and run by husband and wife team Simon and Amanda Ross. Productions include Saturday Kitchen for BBC1, Hairy Bikers Food Tour of Britain for BBC2, Rachel Allen, Galaxy British Book Awards and 8 years of the Richard & Judy show live from Cactus studios.

International ballerina Darcey Bussell is giving kids the opportunity to step into her shoes by wearing her exclusive new children’s clothing range. The collection includes a fantastic selection of tutus, dancewear, accessories and shoes.

“I’ve enjoyed working on the collection… I’m thrilled to put my name to this fabulous range of dancewear!” Darcey Bussell, CBE

Darcey Bussell’s collection is available exclusively to the website: www.darceybusselldirect.com

International Dance Supplies (IDS) has exclusive rights to Darcey Bussell Direct and is the sole supplier of the Darcey Bussell Range. IDS is the UK’s largest wholesale dancewear supplier servicing over 12,000 dance teachers and dance shops with quality dancewear, dance shoes, tights, leotards and costumes as well as accessories and stage props.

For more information on the collection, interviews with Darcey and images please contact Taylor Herring PR 0208 206 5151.

Produced by Cactus TV, creators of the original Book Club on Richard and Judy, The TV Book Club will review the most compelling reads for 2010, presented by stars Jo Brand, Gok Wan, Laila Rouass, Dave Spikey and Nathaniel Parker.

Taylor Herring PR have been appointed to promote the new series.

The funding of the new look TV Book Club follows the recent success of Specsavers headline sponsorship of the Crime Thriller Awards 2009, with Cactus and the Crime Writer’s Association. Aside from the TV Book Club, an eight part Summer Read, which champions the best in holiday reads, will follow later in the year.

The TV Book Club will offer viewers the chance to celebrate and immerse themselves in Britain’s best writing, discussed by a new panel of faces hand selected from all corners of TV, , comedy and arts. In a similar style to ordinary book clubs up and down the country, the presenters will be rating and reviewing one title each week, offering their personal insight and opinions.

The final ten titles for The TV Book Club will be revealed at the end of December. Each week the revived TV Book Club will also feature a major celebrity interview and an author who has been selected for a previous Book Club series, discussing how the programme changed their lives, offering a unique glimpse into how it feels to be a chart topping author. Previous authors that have benefited from featuring on the Book Club, include Kate Mosse, Victoria Hislop and Cecilia Aherne.

Creator and producer of the original and revived Book Club, Amanda Ross says: ‘We’re thrilled to be bringing the Book Club back to TV screens. Thanks to Specsavers we have a long term home on More4. We would also like to thank publishers, libraries and retailers, who have all provided invaluable support, which is set to continue to create a whole new wave of star authors. The Book Club is without a doubt the TV series I am most proud of and I’m looking forward to the start of its new chapter!’

Hamish Mykura, Head of Documentaries and More4 said ‘I’m delighted to bring the TV Book Club to More4 where it will form an exciting part of the resurgence of arts programming on the Channel.’

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For further information from Cactus TV or Channel 4, please contact Justin Jeffreys on tel: 020 8206 5151 or email: justin.jeffreys@taylorherring.com

Notes To Editors

Jo Brand
Jo is most famously a stand-up comedian, but has also authored three novels, Sorting out Billy, It’s Different for Girls and The More You Ignore Me. Her autobiography, Look Back in Hunger became an immediate best-seller. A pioneer of the alternative comedy scene, her TV work includes Jo Brand’s Hot Potatoes, Through the Cakehole and BBC 3 comedy Getting On, which has just been commissioned for a second series.

Dave Spikey
Dave is a multi-award winning comedian, writer and actor. He has worked with long term comedy partner Peter Kay since 1996, and the pair wrote and starred in cult TV show Phoenix Nights. Dave has been touring since 2003, and wrote his first book, He Took My Kidney Then Broke My Heart! this year, based on local news stories he found while on tour.

Nathaniel Parker
Nathaniel graduated from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and first joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1986. His television career began in 1989, and he has since appeared in Joanna Trollope’s A Village Affair, Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd, and psychological thriller Trust, as well as Oscar nominated movie The Bodyguard. Nathaniel also stars in The Inspector Lynley Mysteries and is currently filming the series Land Girls.

Gok Wan
Gok has been a familiar TV face for five years, in that time hosting four television series and writing two books. He presents two hugely popular TV series, How to Look Good Naked, and Gok’s Fashion Fix, for Channel 4, and alongside the programme he wrote How to Look Good Naked: Shop for your Shape and Look Amazing! He also frequently contributes to Tatler and Marie Claire.

About Specsavers
Specsavers was founded by Doug and Dame Mary Perkins in 1984 and is now the largest privately owned opticians in the world. The couple still run the company, along with their three children. Their eldest son John is joint managing director. Specsavers has more than 1,340 stores throughout the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Spain and Australia. The group plans to continue its successful international expansion by opening stores in New Zealand. Annual turnover for the Specsavers Group is forecast to reach a record £1.4 billion in 2009. Specsavers was voted Britain’s most trusted brand of opticians for the eighth year running by Reader’s Digest in 2009.

About Cactus TV
Cactus TV is a member of the ALL3MEDIA group and run by husband and wife team Simon and Amanda Ross. Productions include Saturday Kitchen for BBC1, Hairy Bikers Food Tour of Britain for BBC2, Rachel Allen, Galaxy British Book Awards and 8 years of the Richard & Judy show live from Cactus studios.